The Tea Set
by thelittleturtleduck
Summary: Katara is seriously beginning to question whether it was a good idea to bring Aang baby shopping.


A/N: It's a little late, but Happy Father's Day! This is based off a prompt I received on Tumblr. I hope you enjoy! Please review! God bless!

Disclaimer: I don't own "Avatar: The Last Airbender."

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"Aang, no."

"But Katara!"

"I said no."

"Please?"

Katara glanced around the store, anywhere but at her husband's pleading gaze. There were many expectant mothers with baskets hanging off their arms, gazing at the shelves longingly while pointing at stuff and begging their husbands to buy it for their unborn child. Most of the men hardly looked invested in the shopping though, nearly all stealing secretive glances at the Avatar who stood next to his wife, holding a pale pink tea set in his hands.

The young wife smiled slightly at the passing peoples' surprised faces at seeing the Avatar out and about. But Aang, ever the humble man he was, continued to just stare at her with his bottom lip jutted out in an adorable pout.

"Sweetie," Katara sighed in exasperation, placing one of her tanned hands over one of his tattoed ones that held on tightly to the tea set, "It really is a bit pricey, and we don't even know if the baby is a girl yet."

The waterbender was becoming more frustrated by that fact as time went on. She was 7 months pregnant now, and they were told that they should begin shopping for the baby in case it happened to come early. But when trying to choose colors for blankets and accessories and toys, it all boiled down to the fact that they didn't even know what the gender of their child was going to be. Aang was set on the fact that it was a girl though.

Explaining why he had been attached to everything pink in the baby store since they had walked in.

"Katara, did you hear me?"

The young woman was broken from her train of thought by the curious airbender, his silver eyes still questioning her's.

"I didn't need to. We aren't getting it."

The man's lips settled into a pout again his expression particularly comical. Here he was, the most powerful man in the world, in the middle of a baby store, sulking while his wife had to repeatedly tell him no.

Katara's features softened as his face transformed in to that of a dejected twelve year old boy, one she had known many years ago. Though he stood in front of her now, a good foot taller than her with a dark beard growing along the line of his chiseled chin, she couldn't help but sigh a little in nostalgia before holding her hand out.

"Let me look at the price again."

"Sweetheart," Aang stopped her before she could even grab the toy, "You don't even worry about the price, I will take care of everything."

"I seriously want to know how much it is."

"It doesn't matter," The Avatar shrugged, the fabric of his red and yellow robes bunching up at his shoulders as he did so, "I'm on the yuan, I can take care of this."

"Aang," The man's wife warned, cerulean eyes looking sternly up at him, "You aren't going to play the Avatar card, are you?"

The young man smiled cheekily, taking a step closer to his wife and gently patting her stomach, "I hate to play it, but I'll play it for her."

"Why is this so important?" Katara questioned him, seeing the deep set determination in her husband's eyes.

A blush dusted across his cheeks at her question, a pale hand reaching up to run along the line of the pale blue, arrow tattoo on his bald head, "I don't know."

"You have a reason."

Aang shrugged, returning his hand to his wife's stomach, ignoring all the stares and gazes he was getting from around the store, "She deserves it," He murmured to her softly, looking down at the bump adoringly before turning his gaze back up to her own.

With how jumbled her hormones had been for the past few months, Katara was surprised that she didn't start crying at how loving his words had sounded. Sighing in defeat, she ducked her head down as a blush appeared on her cheeks as well.

"Okay," She finally gave in, causing Aang to smile widely, "Go get a basket from the front and put the tea set in it. We needed one anyway for the blankets."

The look of glee that appeared on the Avatar's face as he followed his wife's orders, had the young woman chuckling a bit under her breath at his enthusiasm. She continued down the rows of aisles, finally reaching one that was lined with cribs and blankets of all different colors and patterns.

Reaching a hand up, she ran her hand along a blanket of blue wool, a Water Tribe symbol laying on one of the corners of the item. She shook her head before turning to the other side where a few gender neutral blankets lay in orange and yellow.

That was another thing that was stressing her out. What if this child didn't end up becoming an airbender? What if her Water Tribe genes messed with the process of bringing back the Air Nomads? Aang hadn't mentioned anything of it, but she knew he had to have thought about it already.

The young man chose that moment to walk down the aisle, his face absolutely beaming as he wrapped his free arm around his pregnant wife, his other arm occupied by the basket with the little tea set in it.

Katara didn't say anything as she rubbed her hand against the fabric of one of the yellow blankets, "What do you think about yellow?"

Aang shrugged, glancing down the aisle where some pink blankets rested, "I think she'll like pink better."

The young woman rolled her eyes, "Aang, I'm serious."

"So am I."

Stepping to the side where she was out of his grasp, the waterbender gave her husband a pensive glare, "Why do I have this feeling that you know something that I don't?"

The Avatar looked back at her innocently, "What do you mean?"

"You are a little bit too confident about this baby being a girl."

Aang scoffed, but she could see that her comment made him nervous. This made her even more suspicious.

"Spill it, Aang."

The man looked at her sideways, his mouth set firmly in a line. With his lips pursed and expression strained, Katara could tell he was trying his best to keep something from her.

The stare down continued for a few silent moments before Aang finally released a heavy sigh, shoulders slumping forward in defeat.

"Avatar Roku told me she was going to be a girl. I was meditating one day early on in your pregnancy and he just dropped in to tell me that."

The waterbender's mouth popped open in disbelief, a bit mad at her husband for just now telling her this information, "Why didn't you tell me that when you found out?"

The young man's gaze fell to his feet, shifting his weight a bit nervously before he shrugged, "I just wanted us to be normal parents like everyone else. I wanted you to be surprised. You assumed in the beginning that the baby was going to be a boy, so I was really excited to see what your reaction was going to be."

Katara's brow raised at his words, "You shouldn't have been prancing around trying to convince me it was going to be a girl for these past few months then. Especially if you wanted me to be surprised."

He gave her a small smile, "I guess I just got a little too excited at the thought of having a little girl."

The woman took in a deep breath, absorbing the news, "Wow, a daughter." The words made her absolutely giddy on the inside. She could see why her husband was so excited now.

There was an uneasy look on Aang's face though as they grabbed a few pink blankets, placing them in the basket next to the tea set. They continued on to an aisle that held an assortment of dolls dressed in the clothes of different nations and a whole side dedicated simply to stuffed animals.

Katara watched the young man carefully as he swung the basket in his hand, picking up one doll after the other and turning it over in his hand to make sure it was in perfect condition. Then he would place the doll with great care into the basket without any regards for the price. He was halfway to the point of filling the basket to the brim when Katara asked him a quiet question.

"Is something else bothering you, Aang?"

The Avatar turned towards her at the sound of her voice, opening his mouth to say something and then clamping it shut again. He shook his head before turning back to the dolls on the shelves.

"Nah, I'm fine."

The waterbender knew him better than that though. She closed the gap in between them and laced their fingers together, her warm blue eyes looking up at him in concern.

"Are you sure?"

The young man nodded, but the furrow between his brow directly contradicted his assurance.

"Did Roku tell you something else?"

Aang paused for a moment, seemingly trying to decide whether he should tell her what the rest of their conversation had been about. One look at her,  
and the man realized there wasn't much of a chance of keeping a secret from her any longer. Finally, he sighed.

"She's going to be a waterbender."

Katara really didn't know what to say that to that. She released Aang's hand and gently placed it protectively over her stomach. Though she had been thinking about the bending ability of her child earlier and fretting over it, she couldn't hide the fact that she was surprised that Aang was acting so down about it.

"There will be other kids, Aang," Katara spoke through pursed lips, looking up at him with hurt evident in her eyes, "This doesn't change the fact that this is our child and it shouldn't matter what her bending ability is."

The young man looked confused for a moment, surprised by her reaction. He had expected her to be scared of what the world was going to say about their child after it was revealed that she was a waterbender and not an airbender, but instead she was directing her anger towards him.

That's when it hit him.

"Oh Katara!" He back tracked immediately, placing the basket on the floor behind him and grabbing for her hands, "No, you misunderstood my disappointment!"

The man's wife looked up at him expectantly, "I sure hope I did."

Aang couldn't help but chuckle a bit at her threatening expression, "Oh trust me, sweetie. I could care less if she was an airbender, a waterbender, or a nonbender. I just want her to be happy."

"Than why did you keep this from me?"

The Avatar sighed heavily, "Because I know that even though you haven't said anything, you were hoping to shut the sages up with an airbender our first try."

Katara shrugged indifferently, yet she had to admit he had a point. The sages had been bugging them since they were young to begin producing children. But the two being as stubborn as they were, waited until their early twenties to even get married. If they didn't produce an airbender, the sages were going to make sure that all accusing fingers pointed directly at herself. Aang knew that, and he knew she realized that too.

"But, Aang," Katara murmured, her hands holding tightly on to his, "Keeping that from me is not going to change the fact that we are going to have a waterbender."

"I didn't want it to change that," The Avatar admitted softly, the genuine honesty in his voice causing Katara to smile, "I want her to be a waterbender."

The man's wife was a bit surprised to her that, "Why?"

"Because I'm pretty sure everyone is expecting me to want an airbender, and expecting me to treat whatever children we have as less if they aren't one," Aang looked at her with wide eyes, "How could people think I would be like that?"

"They don't know you," His wife remarked gently, stroking her thumb across the back of his knuckles affectionately, "I was shocked earlier when you acted like you were disappointed with her. I knew that wasn't my Aang talking."

The young man smiled before releasing her hands and grabbing their basket from the ground, "That's why all this is important to me," He murmured, running a hand across the edge of the box that contained the tea set, "I know that the world is going to be disappointed in her, without any good reason. I just want to make sure she has everything."

"Aang, no one is going to treat her as an inferior," Though Katara tried to say this with confidence, she knew Aang had a point. People were going to watch their child from birth. Her hand came up once again to rub her stomach, protective of the little person she hadn't even met yet.

Her husband reached his free hand out and rubbed a smooth circle across the top of her baby bump, "I just want her to know, from the moment she's born, that she deserves everything. She deserves the world, even if that world disapproves of her. I don't ever want her to think I'm disappointed in her for something she cannot control. She's already made me so proud, and I haven't even got a chance to hold her yet."

Katara could feel the water welling in her eyes at Aang's gentle words, "I feel the same way."

The young man smiled and leaned his head down, softly kissing his wife on the lips, "No more secrets."

The woman sighed, raising her eyebrows, "That better be a promise."

Aang chuckled, "It is."

Later in the evening when they finally finished their shopping, Aang wrapped a protective arm around his wife's waist and guided her up to the cashier at the front of the store. Though the price kept on rising, and the soon-to-be parents could practically hear the people behind them gasping in shock at how much money they spent, neither cared.

Because no matter what the outcome, they both knew their child deserved the world.


End file.
